Wednesday, June 19, 2019

The Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) is a global network of researchers and policy makers conducting quantitative analysis of international policy issues within an economywide framework. GTAP is coordinated by the Center for Global Trade Analysis, which is housed in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University.  Roland Leudjou and Lorainne Ferreira, PhD students at the North-West University, attended the conference to present their research projects.  This year's conference took place at the University of Warsaw in Warsaw, Poland on 19 - 21 June 2019.

Roland’s paper assesses the impact of non-tariff barriers in the AfCFTA. Like tariffs, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) aims to eliminate non-tariff barriers (NTBs) whose effects are not still known. The paper seeks to analyze the impact of the elimination of NTBs and the harmonization of technical measures (SPS and TBT) on intra-African trade and welfare. It uses both gravity model and Computable General Equilibrium Model. Lorainne’s paper considers the many obstacles to trade in Africa, including high trade cost and insufficient market information. As such, being able to identify promising, on-theground trade opportunities could help to clear one of the most fundamental and serious hurdles to regional expansion in Africa, which is the lack of information about trade opportunities. It would also provide policymakers and other stakeholders with a firmer foundation on which to base their regional negotiations and collaboration efforts. The study uses the MIRAGRODEP model to determine the impact on economic growth and development in the selected African countries, should these trade opportunities be realised to some extent.